“I love ordinary time because that’s where I live.” This is a quote that is attributed to Matt Skinner, a Luther Seminary professor, on Working Preacher, and it echoes in my thoughts as I read and study. I think most of us live in “ordinary time”. So, how do we recognize the extraordinary in our everyday lives?
I found a starting place in another idea spoken by another professor at Luther. That is the idea that we are called to “concrete, fruitful ministry to a cross-section of people”. These are words that I scribbled on a sticky note and hung from my bookshelves more than a year ago after a conversation about vocation and discernment. For me, these words define full-time ordained ministry.
“Concrete” evokes images of plain, hard day to day work and a willingness to get my hands dirty. “A cross-section of people” demands some risk – to be in ministry with people who may not be like me, who are more representative of the world at large, whose stories reflect different ages, genders, ethnicities, socio-economic and religious backgrounds. “Fruitful” represents hope and the promises we find in Scripture, that lives lived following Jesus ‘bear good fruit’. It is in this kind of work that I think we uncover the extraordinary lives around us.
Searching for a way to practice "concrete, fruitful ministry to a cross-section of people", I discovered a day center for the homeless where I can volunteer a couple of hours a week. It’s open every day, year round, for five hours each morning. There, people can find showers, soap, shampoo, razors, washcloths and towels; laundry services; hot food and coffee; telephones; mailboxes; containers or lockers for valuables; over-the counter medicine and vitamins; secure storage for checks and prescription medications. Staff help clients address needs like obtaining identification and educate people about housing, employment and transportation resources. At night, staff reopen to distribute blankets and sleeping bags.
No one is invisible there. Everyone checks in and we learn their names and ages and where they slept last night. This morning the youngest I met was 22 and the oldest was 60-something and there were whites, blacks, Latinos, men and women. The temperatures were in the 50s last night, and most of the people had slept on the street. There, I discovered the extraordinary - extraordinary people facing extraordinary times with extraordinary courage and poise.
